You had me at dragons! The world building is deep so there is a bit of a steep learning curve, but it is so rich that it's like swimming in a viscous dream. This is a good setup and start to a longer series that will offer political and romantic drama set in a unique fantasy setting. A fun read worth getting into.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bronzewood Books for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book, but was frustrated with how short it was. I felt like I was just getting to grips with the multitude of characters, the language used and the roles everyone played, and then it was over!

Mariynne was an interesting main character. Burdened with the role of empress at a young age after her mother is killed and her father is missing, she has literally the whole world on her shoulders. I enjoyed seeing her relationships with others, but do fear that some of her closest confidants could be working against her in future books!

I didn’t quite understand the magic or world building involved, however I did appreciate that information about it was fed in little pieces that meant something to the story, instead of a big obvious explanation at the beginning that feels clunky. I’m intrigued to know more about it.

The first part of the book I wasn’t too keen on - the prologue was very dark and something just wasn’t working for me. But once we hit the main story, I found it to be riveting. For such a short book, the pace was a little slow, with most of the book spent deliberating on choices that have little payoff in this particular book.

Overall, I’d be interested in reading the next book to see where the story goes. I rated it slightly lower than I think it deserves, just because I had high expectations for it and it just felt like a long set-up for the rest of the series.

ARC from NetGalley

Eh. This book was another "not awful but not good." I almost gave up on it in the beginning because I've been working a lot these days and don't have much time for books that don't spark my interest, but my stupid work ethic tends to cross paths with my book reviewing, and I feel guilty if I say I'll review something and give up on it unless it truly sucks.

The writing in this book is really stilted. I couldn't get into the story. I couldn't connect with the characters. The whole anglo-japanese angle was just weird to read. Honestly, I don't really remember much else about this book even though I finished it quite recently, which I suppose speaks volumes.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bronzewood Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. I really appreciate the book is short (less than 200 pages). I'm not necessarily eager for 1000 page fantasy epics where you have slog through 500 pages to get to the good part!.

The world building is packed with the history, politics and (a bit of the) drama in Nantai. I do want to explore more of this world and the lives of the sisters. There is not much action in this book and I kept waiting for things to pick up. I was hoping for more. The series seems promising, there are some interesting parts and ideas, but the book fell short for me. Call of the Storm Sorcerer was good. Nothing groundbreaking, and it certainly has issues, but I enjoyed it!

I had a hard time connecting with this story. It throws out a lot of unexplained concepts and ideas all at once; which I normally like, but that is because they are usually easy to figure out in context or help to advance the plot. I didn't feel like that was the case here, so even by 75% through the book I was still as confused on several of these. It made it easy to walk away from the story and not pick it up again for days. That said, the world seemed to be fairly interesting even if it was frustrating to understand. That would not have been as bad, except that the story was SLOW. The main plot seemed to be a will she or won't she "thriller" as the main character tries to figure out if she will ascend to her father's throne before knowing if he is actually dead yet. I am not even sure who the antagonists are yet ... and that makes it hard to keep going.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#TheSerpentineThrone #NetGalley

I loved loved loved this book! I cannot wait for the next book in the series! The writing was fabulous with enough detail to fill in the reader but concise enough to move along at a great pace.

This book had a very slow beginning that made it really difficult to get through. After getting past that, I liked the book well enough. I really enjoyed the story building and watching the characters evolve throughout the book. I give this a 6.5/10 for the difficult beginning since I found it really hard to keep reading through the book.

Great read! I enjoyed all the development that was put into both the world and the characters. It was a little slow at at times but overall developed nicely.

I couldn’t actually open this book on my NetGalley shelf unfortunately. I didn’t want to not review so I’ve just given it 3/5 to not skew the average!

There is alot to like about this book. There are lots of interesting fantasy tropes - the reluctant heir the lost parent, the star crossed lovers, uncertain loyalties, murder, magic and a fantasy Japanese setting that all make for a really strong start to the story. However it is let down by the oddly wooden language and the characters never quite seem to jump off the page with any passion or energy. The similarity of the court names doesn't help with the overall feeling of blandness. There is much to enjoy and much to be intrigued with in this fantasy - maybe the next installment will add a bit more seasoning.

I felt like this book had a lot of potential, but it sadly didn’t reach all of it.

I enjoyed the world building a lot, but it was a bit unstructured in my opinion - I got confused and had a hard time keeping track of the caste system and what was what a lot of times.

I liked the characters, but I had a hard time connecting to them. I felt like we didn’t get to actually get to know them and care about them, but merely got to read about them objectively. The story was a bit confusing and rushed, but overall the writing was okay!
I would absolutely revisit this authors books when they have some more experience!

Mairynne is the youngest of three sisters, and also a princess, and magic-wielder. Her mother died not long ago, her father disappeared not long after and is now believed to be dead. The will of the emperor and empress was for her to inherit the throne, but Mairynne feels deep inside her heart that her father is not dead. She is pressured to ascend to the throne even though she does not want to, but she still decides to do her duty for her country despite her fear that she is not ready and up to the task. Meanwhile, she is also hoping to find a way to discover the truth about her father’s mysterious disappearance.

I can’t exactly explain why, but I really had a hard time pushing through this story. The world is intriguing and interesting, but the book was still difficult to read, not because it is complex, but because I did not find it interesting or compelling. Nothing really caught my attention or got me involved in the story. Mairynne is a nice, but unoriginal main character, and I can’t say that I connected that much with her. I honestly felt nothing for the other characters, they are not bad characters, but they just are really bland, and the dialogues between them and the main character are not the bests I’ve read.

There is not much action in this book, probably because it’s the first in a series, so it is more about introducing the characters and the setting, but I kept waiting for things to pick up. I was hoping for more. The series seems promising, there are some interesting parts and ideas, but the book fell short for me. Some aspects of the world-building still remain unclear, I am not entirely sure that I understand the caste system or the magic-system. It did not prevent me from understanding the story, but it bothered me a few times while I was reading.

The politics aspect is subtle, and the storyline is a little predictable, there are no great twists and turns. The next book will probably be more interesting as the plot will continue, but I do not think that I will continue with this series.

In a country reeling from the loss of both its Empress and Emperor, Mairynne struggles with the fact that she will succeed them both as Empress. Despite what others have told her, she does not truly believe that her father is dead. She is determined to do her duty to her country while also hoping to find out the truth of her father's whereabouts.

I really struggled through this book. The world that Stradiotto builds throughout the story was intriguing, but the book itself was difficult to read. My main issue was that the dialogue seemed stiff at times and didn't flow well. There are a lot of words that are unique to this universe, but I had a hard time figuring out what they meant. In terms of the characters, I liked Mairynne overall, but never felt like I connected with the other characters.

It's helpful to know that this book is the first book in a series because there was not a lot of action that happened. I kept waiting for things to pick up, but beyond a few interesting points here and there, the pace was quite slow. There's enough setup that the series seems promising, so I'm hopeful that the plot will continue to develop and the world will be fleshed out more as the story continues.

Thank you to Susan Stradiotto, Bronzewood Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and honestly review this book.

A 6.5/10 for me. This is a book about a young princess; the youngest of the three daughters of the emperor; having to ascend to the throne despite her not wanting to do so. Alas with the loss of both the emperor and the empress, she is called to do her duty, yet her heart tells her that her father is not dead. With these conflicted thoughts we follow Mairynne in this political fantasy world.

I have mixed thoughts on this book. I did not particularly enjoy the prologue and i did not like the writing style either. That was; until the main story started. The narrative changed from third person perspective to first person perspective and something just clicked with me. I suddenly found the writing genuinely beautiful and it fit so well with the first person pov. ON TOP OF THAT the voice of the main character felt really unique and it was SO atmospheric in the sense i absolutely loved reading from her perspective. As for the world building i loved learning about the Cloud Court and the caste system and i just wanted more; the setting kept me fascinated throughout the book and you can tell the author purposefully dropped different aspects of the world throughout the journey of this story instead of info dumping all at the start, which i really appreciated.

That said, the politicking was very subtle, there weren’t plots and twists and the plot of the book felt weak compared to how great the worldbuilding was that I didn’t care for the politicking. In simple words, i could even say that not a lot happened in this book, it felt more like a setup than a complete story, but weirdly, at least for me, it worked. The characters all were unique and we see glimpses of their personalities and personas, but very few of them were truly fleshed out. Im still hoping further down the series we get to understand more of the side characters because all in all i enjoyed reading this book, at the end i’m yearning to know
more about this world and characters and i would recommend this book to people yearning to meet a new world!

Thank you to Bronzewood Books and NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My biggest complaint about this book is the amount of names and terms with no real explanation that were just thrown in at the start especially, which made it really confusing, and very hard to get into. The exposition was also quite heavy-handed at parts, yet in other parts, it just wasn't enough. However, I really liked the main character, she spoke with a lot of confidence, which was quite fresh, and she just knew what she wanted.

The concept of this book was quite good, and while it ended up not necessarily being my sort of thing when it comes to fantasy, I could see the appeal if it is your thing. This book is just being held back by its terminology and the balance between unique names and just being too much.

The beginning was long winded which made it difficult to get into reading it at first. Once I paced myself to match it, the Story unfolded and showed its beauty. Highly recommend to fantasy readers who love mystery, intrigue, and thrilling adventure!

Upon the death of her mother and the disappearance of her father, Mairynne Evangale is set to become the next Empress of Nantai. However, she does not feel set for the role. Along with her fears she is not prepared to be Empress so soon, she believes her father is still alive. In the first book in the Serpentine Throne series, Stradiotto sets up Mairynne’s story.

One of the first things I realized when I began reading this book, was that the story was a compelling one. While the plot is slightly predictable, the development of likable characters keeps the reader engaged. Additionally, the pace of the story is steady, meaning there are no points where I felt myself lagging in reading. I felt the different plot points and conflict items were well placed to keep you from falling off the story.

When it comes to world building, Stradiotto does well in introducing terminology in a way that isn’t overwhelming. However, I did find myself wondering more about certain elements of the world. There is a caste system, but how does it work? They have magic, but what are the rules around use? Does everyone have magic, or is it caste based? I feel like these questions go unanswered in the sense that Stradiotto expects the reader to already know. My hope is that these points will be addressed later in the series.

Overall, I found Call of the Storm Sorcerer to be a compelling read. I would suggest that others pick it up if they want an easy and enjoyable read, with magical elements and a little bit of mystery.

There were aspects of the book that I really enjoyed. I loved the idea behind it but unfortunately the pacing let me down a bit. I felt like the book only really picked up in the last quarter. Also the world building was quite confusing. A lot of world specific termanology was thrown in, with little explanation of what any of it meant.

I did enjoy the romance, but I also wish it had developed more.